


Spring in his Step

by FelixTheLemonKing



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: America is kind of an antagonist, M/M, Past FrUk, he's really just being level 100 dumbass, mentioned past PruAus, mentioned past PruHun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23033632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelixTheLemonKing/pseuds/FelixTheLemonKing
Summary: After Francis and Ivan begin dating, how will Francis' family feel about it?
Relationships: Canada/Prussia (Hetalia), England/France (Hetalia), France/Russia (Hetalia)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Spring in his Step

When Arthur and Francis broke apart, it was sad and stressful and nobody could say it was a great experience. But they stayed close friends. After getting a divorce they even decided to live together for a few more years. That way they could take better care of 15 year old Alfred and Matthew, whom they both deeply loved and cherished. It was also to give Francis enough time to save up enough money from his job as a flower shop owner to move out. 

Things were still rocky at times, yeah. But they loved each other, in their own ways. Surely, nothing could go wrong in such a lovely household. Right?

Oh how wrong they were.

~o~

It all started with the sunflowers.

It was supposed to be a normal day in Francis’ flower shop. Of course, with the kind of friends he hung out with that was usually thrown out the window anyway but this time more than usual. For one thing, Alfred and his school friends stopped by earlier and completely trashed the place. (He would have to talk with Arthur about taking away his allowance this month, like they ended up having to do every month.) 

Second, the water had stopped working. Which was a total pain in the ass! He had to go to the gym next door run by his friend’s younger brother to borrow enough water to take care of his plants. To be fair though, Ludwig is very hot and with the spare views he got it wasn’t _that_ much of an issue.

Third, and most important of all, he had a huge order of sunflowers expected to be picked up today. Yes, he had all of them there in the back room but on top of going back and forth to water his flowers and cleaning the shop from Alfred’s mess he didn’t even realize when a tall customer with short blonde hair wearing a scarf walked in. Let alone were the flowers prepared.

“Ah, hello? Are you busy?”

Francis squeaked and turned around to face his customer, he was nearly finished watering all the flowers! “Oh, sorry about that. Non, non, not busy at all~. You ordered the sun flowers, right? I’ll go get them now.”

Without giving him a chance to respond, he ran into the back room to hide the blush on his face. After taking a few breaths he calmed himself down he began reassuring himself. No need to be embarrassed from being caught off guard by the scary man! He has dealt with much worse. 

“Are you alright?”

He screeched again. “Mon ami! You have got to stop doing that, you’re going to give me a heart attack! Just like matthew, appearing out of nowhere.”

The other man smiled, but the smile didn’t seem genuine. He had seen enough of Antonio’s fake smiles to know that. He didn’t point it out though as it wasn’t his place and simply went back to preparing the sunflowers for him. “So what do you even need all these for, hm? I wouldn’t think they are all for one person, anyway.”

“Oh, they are all for me. I just moved here and the flowers remind me of where I’m from.”

He took a quick guess from the accent, “Russia, right? How sweet. When I first moved here I was much younger but I met a couple people who made me feel welcome. Still my best friends to date!”

“I’m afraid I haven’t had as much luck,” the russian man sat down in a chair kept in the back room as Francis finished up preparing the last few flowers, “I’ve already gotten in a few fights…”

His smile faltered and Francis couldn’t help but think of how much harder it would have been if he had never met Antonio and Gilbert after first moving here. Surely he could do something to help him right?

“Say, what’s your name? I can’t remember what you said it was over call.”

“Ivan, Ivan Braginsky. Why do you ask?”

He pulled out a notecard from one of the drawers of the room, writing his contact information on it. “Well, Ivan. If you ever want to chat or feel lonely, give me a call okay?” he gave him the card, “Now, let’s get these flowers into your car!”

This time, Ivan’s smile seemed much more genuine.

~o~

“There is _nothing_ wrong with capitalism, you commie!”

Matthew sighed as his brother fought with the russian man inside the ice cream place. He just wanted to eat ice cream, not deal with more crazy political talk from his brother. Though, in all honesty, he would have to deal with his brother’s conspiracy theories no matter what had happened. He really was a picture perfect image of a stereotypical american.

The russian, name Ivan, who Alfred was having his argument with looked utterly exasperated. “Really, now? I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you what is wrong with that sentence.”

Ivan had just been sitting down, eating his ice cream when Alfred came up to him to start blathering on about what _he_ thinks of russians all because the man had a pin on his coat with the russian flag on it. Matthew pitied the guy, but there wasn’t much he could do because…

“Oh, and birdie next time I come by make sure there are pancakes ready!”

Because of his _date_ Gilbert had been “platonically” flirting with him for years, as he put it. That is, until about a few months ago after Gilbert broke it off with both Roderich and Elizabeta for good when platonically suddenly became romantically. But, Matthew couldn’t say he didn’t like him. He was one of the few people who he could hang out with. Even though it was a little weird that he was friends with his dad (He used to work with Francis when he was first trying to get a job at 16, despite the age difference both he and Antonio hit it off really well with Francis. He had to stop working there about half a year ago to focus on music but he and his dad are still friends). 

“Of course I will. Even though you always come by later in the day and pancakes are a breakfast food.” 

He snickered and took a bite, a _bite_ out of his ice cream. “Well you make the best, it’s only natural I have them every time I come around!”

Before Matthew could respond, the door to the Ice Cream place slammed shut as his brother left in a fit. The guy he had been arguing with sighed in relief. “Well, there goes our ride…”

Gilbert paused a moment before standing up and looking down at him, “You know, my house is a short walk from here, want to play some video games?”

Well, they didn’t have anywhere else to be, right? So Matthew smiled and nodded before they left.

~o~

Francis and Ivan had been dating for a few months now. Ivan was so overwhelmingly grateful for Francis’ company whenever he came by, it kind of concerned the french man a little. He would always beam and offer him some food while he told him about his old home and all about his sisters. Francis had heard so many stories about them, like how his younger sister used to have a silly crush on him or how his eldest sister once worked three jobs all at the same time to provide for them. He couldn’t help but find it endearing how warm he really was under such a scary appearance.

He just had to hope his own family would see the same.

Francis took a deep breath to calm his thoughts. “Okay, Ivan, just wait out here and I’ll tell you when to come in. Alright?”

“It feels like coming out all over again…” the Russian chuckled. 

Walking into his house, he called everyone into the living room for a serious discussion. Alfred, Matthew, and a very tired Arthur (he didn’t get much sleep last night) all came in and sat down on the couch. 

“Now, listen, Arthur and I’s divorce has been hard on all of us-” immediately he got some rather concerned looks but at least he had their attention “-and I don’t want what I say to change things between us. I love you all very much, please don’t forget that. But I…” pause for dramatic affect “I’ve been dating someone!”

“Wait, really!? Who is it! Who is it!” of course, Alfred was the first to enthusiastically respond. Meanwhile, Arthur simply looked away. Ah, he was afraid he’d react like that. Matthew, sitting right next to him, put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, getting a small smile in response.

“Well… I can show you! Ivan, come on in.” 

As the tall man came in, he certainly did get gasps from everyone in the room (Well, except Arthur). However it was far from the reason he thought he would get gasps for.

“You!” Alfred looked genuinely pissed in the midst of his shock.

 _“You!”_ Ivan just looked shocked in general, oh dear.

“Francis, please, _please_ tell me you are not dating my… my arch nemesis!”

“Arch nemesis? We only argued once and _you_ started it!” Ivan countered.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Matthew and Arthur both giving one big sigh as they left the room. Great, now I have to deal with this alone.

“Alfred, you know I can’t keep up with all the people you don’t like! You have so many!” 

Alfred was standing up now and I could definitely say that this was a bad idea. “Yes, but _Francis_ , he- he’s Russian! You know, a _communist_ ”

Okay, definitely a bad idea. We both did a face palm at that. Before it could escalate any further I turned to Ivan, “You should probably leave, I’m afraid. I can drive you home.”

“What!? Don’t ignore me, I’m serious!”

“Of course. Listen, Alfred just sit down and _calm_ down. I’ll be back later and we can talk then.”

Without another word, and perhaps just to rub it in out of bitterness, he grabbed Ivan’s hand (Ivan’s blush not going unnoticed!) and they left.

~o~

On the drive to Ivan’s home it was almost quiet if it hadn’t been for the radio playing music. Some rock station Alfred always had us play that wasn’t too bad. The car rumbled a little as it was a fairly old car and you could feel the vibrations of it in the seat. It was dark so I had to pay extra attention to the road but still I tried to lighten the mood as best I could.

“Well... that was a bust, huh?” I started.

“Mmm…” I glanced over at him in the dark and he had his eyes closed, probably listening to the music. How odd that he and someone he hated so much could like the same music, I thought to myself.

“Sorry about Alfred, he’s got a lot of pretty wacky _opinions_ on politics. I’ll talk to him about it later.” 

“Children should play nice...” That threw me off. He said a lot of mysterious things sometimes, though. I wouldn’t want to ask because I don’t want to make him uncomfortable but I have a theory that he might’ve had a lot of trouble with bullies as a kid. He always gets tense and a bit irrational when confronted and often complains about how rowdy kids can be.

“I… I’ll talk to him about it later.”

Maybe one day I’ll help him with his issues but our relationship is still new. For now, I take Ivan home and give him a peck on the cheek as I leave. It’s the best I can do.

~o~

After ensuring that Arthur was fine being alone in his room, Matthew went to calm down Alfred after Francis and Ivan left. Because it seemed that he was the 24/7 peacemaker of the family (It was only natural, he was looking to become a therapist one day). Of course, the best way to calm down Alfred was food. As he made him some waffles with a recipe Emma gave him, Alfred made sure to tell him everything that was on his mind.

“And to think, Francis would just… Just go behind the back of all of us and date some _commie_!” 

“Mhm…” 

“You know how many people I know who’ve had run-ins with him? Alot! What does Francis see in him?”

“I don’t know.”

“You aren’t even listening to me, are you?”

I look him in the eyes “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“Meanie!”

After making sure his waffles wouldn’t explode he sat next to Alfred. “Listen, I know you don’t like it but if Francis is happy why interrupt that? You know it's been a while since we’ve seen him this happy.”

“Yeah but his _boyfriend_ already seems like such a jerk! I don’t want him to get hurt like I know he will if he goes into a relationship with him.” 

There was no way Matthew was going to convince him he wasn't an asshole, was there? Oh well. “Okay, fine, maybe he’s the absolute jerkiest jerk in the whole world. You still don’t know for sure if he’s going to pull anything and right now _you’re_ being the jerk of the world! If Ivan tries anything, you can trust Francis to tell us, right? Well, if it happens you have my total permission to kick his ass.”

Alfred went a little shocked at his timid brother raising his voice to a point where he almost didn’t register what he said. But he got the message after a few seconds. “Fine, as long as I can kick his ass if he tries something!”

“And…”

He looked at him. “And what?”

“ _And_ you better apologize to Francis for making a scene.”

“Hey, you can’t boss me around!”

He got up since the waffles were almost ready, “I’m the older twin, I can scold you.” 

“That’s _not_ how that works.”

Suddenly the door opened and Francis came in. All the sudden there was a very awkward silence among them. Matthew broke it.

“Come on, Alfred. Apologize.”

After a moment of Alfred stubbornly looking at the floor he sighed and gave in, “Sorry for making a scene Francis…”

He smiles, “Ah, it’s alright!” and then the smile faded “though… I’m more concerned for how Ivan took it…” after putting his keys up he pauses and looks down in thought.

Matthew saw that Alfred was about to say something but after fixing him a glare he must have changed his mind. “Yeah…” he said instead.

Maybe, just maybe, this would all turn out alright, he thought.

~o~

Several months went by and while Alfred and Ivan still didn’t get along, things were going smoothly. In fact, after about three months into Francis’ and Ivan’s relationship they decided that it would be a good idea for Francis to move in with Ivan, seeing as Arthur had a much harder time being around Francis lately. Francis was almost completely moved in, too. He just needed to move his clothes over.

“Francis, do you think we could take a break now? I did not know you had this much clothes and it’s getting hot.” Ivan said.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll go get some water, mon cher.” Francis gave him a smile before turning to get them a drink from inside the house.

It was hard not to notice that he had an extra spring in his steps these days.


End file.
